Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: See LiveScience link below. |
Archaeologists in Germany have uncovered a handful of 500-year-old gold coins buried among the ruins of a medieval monastery.
Known as Himmelpforten, the Augustinian Hermit monastery housed monks from its founding in 1253 into the 16th century. The archaeologists think the four coins were "hastily hidden" by one of the monks in 1525 during an uprising in which farmers stormed the monastery in Wernigerode, a town in central Germany...
"The gold coins were of great value, and the small fortune was probably hidden by a monk in an acutely dangerous situation,"...
Here is the link.
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| Source: Benjamin Franklin used science to ward off counterfeiters | Popular Science (popsci.com) |
A rare window into the early American monetary history — thanks to techniques from physics
Benjamin Franklin may be best known as the creator of bifocals and the lightning rod, but a group of University of Notre Dame researchers suggest he should also be known for his innovative ways of making (literal) money.
During his career, Franklin printed nearly 2,500,000 money notes for the American Colonies using what the researchers have identified as highly original techniques, as reported in a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research team, led by Kahtchatur Manukyan an associate research professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy has spent the past seven years analyzing a trove of nearly 600 notes from the Colonial period, which is part of an extensive collection developed by the Hesburgh Libraries’ Rare Books and Special Collections. The Colonial notes span an 80-year period and include notes printed by Franklin’s network of printing shops and other printers, as well as a series of counterfeit notes...
Here is the link for more about that.
That is an interesting area of study.
I think Hesburgh Lirbraries' is a mistake. I don't think there is more than one.
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The Swiss federal government is seeking to amend Switzerland’s constitution to make cash a legal right. The issue is of sufficient importance that seven members serving as the joint head of state and government along with the Federal Council of Switzerland officially stated, “the importance, for the economy and society, of the role [is] played by cash.”
The proposal to retain coins and bank notes as legal tender requires a petition signed by 100,000 citizens, or 1.2 percent of the population by August 2024.
There is some irony in this move, since, according to Swiss National Bank research, cash transactions are now mainly used only for values of less than 20 francs or about $23 U.S. Most financial transactions are being conducted by debit and credit cards, or by mobile telephone payment apps. In the three years between 2017 and 2020 the amount of cash payments being conducted in Switzerland shrank from about 70 to 43 percent.
As might be anticipated, individuals above the age of 55 or are from low income households, use more cash than other forms of payment...
Here is that link.
Switzerland to Lock in Coins as Cash - Numismatic News
I prefer cash in many cases because it is a simple and direct exchange between two parties without external involvement, complicaton, sanction or control.
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Two metal detecting enthusiasts in England may not be as enthusiastic as they have been in the past. On April 28 two men were found guilty of failing to report a find of historically important Anglo-Saxon coins as required under British treasure trove laws.Roger Pilling and Craig Best were sentenced to 10 and eight years respectively for failing to declare their find of coins minted between 874 and 879 that were buried by an unidentified Viking. The pair had been charged with possessing criminal property, that criminal property being the coins...
Here is that link.
British Enforce Treasure Trove Laws - Numismatic News
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Don is still hanging around in the middle of the Atlantic. Nothing much new.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net